Extensible moderation framework

ABSTRACT

A moderation framework monitors content posted in a database network and uses a declarative configuration scheme that defines moderation rules without having to write new software. A user interface operated by the moderation platform allows selection of different user criteria and different content criteria for triggering the moderation rules. The user interface also provides selectable actions for the moderation rules to apply when the content matches the selected user and content criteria. The user interface also allows selection of different entities for associating with different moderation rules, such as accounts, cases, opportunities, Chatter® feed posts, or custom objects defined by customers.

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/251,334, filed Aug. 30, 2016 all of which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technology relates to moderating content in a database system.

BACKGROUND

Different networks may operate within a database system. The networksare alternatively referred to as communities and may provide customizeddatabase presentations for a group of users. These database communitiesmay wall off different content to different user groups. For example, acommunity may be operated by a company and may include internal companyemployees and external company customers. The external customers mayhave access to some content posted in the community but may not be ableto view other content posted by internal employees.

Security systems may filter content posted by users. For example, thesecurity systems may filter inappropriate words or may block certainusers who post spam. However, these security systems are not readilyextensible to different database communities. As mentioned above, eachcommunity may have different types of users that may need differentlevels and types of content moderation. Different communities also maywant to filter different types of content for different groups of users,and perform different types of content moderation when these differenttypes of content are detected. Due to the variety of differentmoderation configurations, each community may need custom securitysoftware.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve to provideexamples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storagemedia. These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detailthat may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from thespirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example environment in which anon-demand database service can be used according to someimplementations.

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of example implementations of elements ofFIG. 1A and example interconnections between these elements according tosome implementations.

FIG. 2 shows an example extensible content moderation framework.

FIG. 3 shows an example process performed by the content moderationframework.

FIG. 4 shows an example moderation rule template.

FIG. 5 shows example user and content criteria templates.

FIG. 6 shows an example data structure for the content moderationframework.

FIG. 7 shows an example triggering and storage scheme used by thecontent moderation framework.

FIG. 8 shows an example process for loading and applying moderationrules and associated rule criteria.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, computer-readable storage media, andmethods according to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosed implementationsmay be practiced without some or all of the specific details provided.In other instances, certain process or method operations, also referredto herein as “blocks,” have not been described in detail in order toavoid unnecessarily obscuring the disclosed implementations. Otherimplementations and applications also are possible, and as such, thefollowing examples should not be taken as definitive or limiting eitherin scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese disclosed implementations are described in sufficient detail toenable one skilled in the art to practice the implementations, it is tobe understood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made to the disclosedimplementations without departing from their spirit and scope. Forexample, the blocks of the methods shown and described herein are notnecessarily performed in the order indicated in some otherimplementations. Additionally, in some other implementations, thedisclosed methods may include more or fewer blocks than are described.As another example, some blocks described herein as separate blocks maybe combined in some other implementations. Conversely, what may bedescribed herein as a single block may be implemented in multiple blocksin some other implementations. Additionally, the conjunction “or” isintended herein in the inclusive sense where appropriate unlessotherwise indicated; that is, the phrase “A, B or C” is intended toinclude the possibilities of “A,” “B,” “C,” “A and B,” “B and C,” “A andC” and “A, B and C.”

Some implementations described and referenced herein are directed tosystems, apparatus, computer-implemented methods and computer-readablestorage media for identifying articles helpful in resolving userqueries.

In some implementations, the users described herein are users (or“members”) of an interactive online “enterprise social network,” alsoreferred to herein as an “enterprise social networking system,” an“enterprise collaborative network,” or more simply as an “enterprisenetwork.” Such online enterprise networks are increasingly becoming acommon way to facilitate communication among people, any of whom can berecognized as enterprise users. One example of an online enterprisesocial network is Chatter®, provided by salesforce.com, inc. of SanFrancisco, California. salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of enterprisesocial networking services, customer relationship management (CRM)services and other database management services, any of which can beaccessed and used in conjunction with the techniques disclosed herein insome implementations. These various services can be provided in a cloudcomputing environment as described herein, for example, in the contextof a multi-tenant database system. Some of the described techniques orprocesses can be implemented without having to install software locally,that is, on computing devices of users interacting with servicesavailable through the cloud. While the disclosed implementations may bedescribed with reference to Chatter® and more generally to enterprisesocial networking, those of ordinary skill in the art should understandthat the disclosed techniques are neither limited to Chatter® nor to anyother services and systems provided by salesforce. com, inc. and can beimplemented in the context of various other database systems such ascloud-based systems that are not part of a multi-tenant database systemor which do not provide enterprise social networking services.

I. Example System Overview

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations. The environment 10 includes user systems 12, a network14, a database system 16 (also referred to herein as a “cloud-basedsystem”), a processor system 17, an application platform 18, a networkinterface 20, tenant database 22 for storing tenant data 23, systemdatabase 24 for storing system data 25, program code 26 for implementingvarious functions of the system 16, and process space 28 for executingdatabase system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as runningapplications as part of an application hosting service. In some otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these components orsystems, or may have other components or systems instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

In some implementations, the environment 10 is an environment in whichan on-demand database service exists. An on-demand database service,such as that which can be implemented using the system 16, is a servicethat is made available to users outside of the enterprise(s) that own,maintain or provide access to the system 16. As described above, suchusers generally do not need to be concerned with building or maintainingthe system 16. Instead, resources provided by the system 16 may beavailable for such users' use when the users need services provided bythe system 16; that is, on the demand of the users. Some on-demanddatabase services can store information from one or more tenants intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and software of a databasesystem may be shared by one or more customers or tenants. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as feed items for a potentially much greater number of customers. Adatabase image can include one or more database objects. A relationaldatabase management system (RDBMS) or the equivalent can execute storageand retrieval of information against the database object(s).

Application platform 18 can be a framework that allows the applicationsof system 16 to execute, such as the hardware or software infrastructureof the system 16. In some implementations, the application platform 18enables the creation, management and execution of one or moreapplications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

In some implementations, the system 16 implements a web-based customerrelationship management (CRM) system. For example, in some suchimplementations, the system 16 includes application servers configuredto implement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, renderable web pages and documents and otherinformation to and from user systems 12 and to store to, and retrievefrom, a database system related data, objects, and Web page content. Insome MTS implementations, data for multiple tenants may be stored in thesame physical database object in tenant database 22. In some suchimplementations, tenant data is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant database 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logically separatefrom that of other tenants so that one tenant does not have access toanother tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared. The system16 also implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRMapplication. For example, the system 16 can provide tenant access tomultiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRMapplication. User (or third party developer) applications, which may ormay not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform 18.The application platform 18 manages the creation and storage of theapplications into one or more database objects and the execution of theapplications in one or more virtual machines in the process space of thesystem 16.

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (forexample, in a server farm located in a single building or campus), orthey may be distributed at locations remote from one another (forexample, one or more servers located in city A and one or more serverslocated in city B). As used herein, each MTS could include one or morelogically or physically connected servers distributed locally or acrossone or more geographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” ismeant to refer to a computing device or system, including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (for example, OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art.It should also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as part of a single database, a distributeddatabase, a collection of distributed databases, a database withredundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc., and caninclude a distributed database or storage network and associatedprocessing intelligence.

The network 14 can be or include any network or combination of networksof systems or devices that communicate with one another. For example,the network 14 can be or include any one or any combination of a LAN(local area network), WAN (wide area network), telephone network,wireless network, cellular network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. The network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the “Internet” (with a capital “I”).The Internet will be used in many of the examples herein. However, itshould be understood that the networks that the disclosedimplementations can use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is afrequently implemented protocol.

The user systems 12 can communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, ata higher network level, other common Internet protocols to communicate,such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTP is used, eachuser system 12 can include an HTTP client commonly referred to as a “webbrowser” or simply a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals toand from an HTTP server of the system 16. Such an HTTP server can beimplemented as the sole network interface 20 between the system 16 andthe network 14, but other techniques can be used in addition to orinstead of these techniques. In some implementations, the networkinterface 20 between the system 16 and the network 14 includes loadsharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors tobalance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a numberof servers. In MTS implementations, each of the servers can have accessto the MTS data; however, other alternative configurations may be usedinstead.

The user systems 12 can be implemented as any computing device(s) orother data processing apparatus or systems usable by users to access thedatabase system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can be a desktopcomputer, a work station, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, ahandheld computing device, a mobile cellular phone (for example, a“smartphone”), or any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, wireless accessprotocol (WAP)-enabled device, or other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other network. Theterms “user system” and “computing device” are used interchangeablyherein with one another and with the term “computer.” As describedabove, each user system 12 typically executes an HTTP client, forexample, a web browsing (or simply “browsing”) program, such as a webbrowser based on the WebKit platform, Microsoft's Internet Explorerbrowser, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Opera's browser, or Mozilla'sFirefox browser, or the like, allowing a user (for example, a subscriberof on-demand services provided by the system 16) of the user system 12to access, process and view information, pages and applicationsavailable to it from the system 16 over the network 14.

Each user system 12 also typically includes one or more user inputdevices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, a touchscreen, a pen or stylus or the like, for interacting with a graphicaluser interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display (for example,a monitor screen, liquid crystal display (LCD), light-emitting diode(LED) display, among other possibilities) of the user system 12 inconjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by the system 16 or other systems or servers. For example, theuser interface device can be used to access data and applications hostedby system 16, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwiseallow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented toa user. As discussed above, implementations are suitable for use withthe Internet, although other networks can be used instead of or inaddition to the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtualprivate network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or thelike.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 can be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user ofsuch user system. For example, where a salesperson is using a particularuser system 12 to interact with the system 16, that user system can havethe capacities allotted to the salesperson. However, while anadministrator is using that user system 12 to interact with the system16, that user system can have the capacities allotted to thatadministrator. Where a hierarchical role model is used, users at onepermission level can have access to applications, data, and databaseinformation accessible by a lower permission level user, but may nothave access to certain applications, database information, and dataaccessible by a user at a higher permission level. Thus, different usersgenerally will have different capabilities with regard to accessing andmodifying application and database information, depending on the users'respective security or permission levels (also referred to as“authorizations”).

According to some implementations, each user system 12 and some or allof its components are operator-configurable using applications, such asa browser, including computer code executed using a central processingunit (CPU) such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly,the system 16 (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than oneis present) and all of its components can be operator-configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using the processor system17, which may be implemented to include a CPU, which may include anIntel Pentium® processor or the like, or multiple CPUs.

The system 16 includes tangible computer-readable media havingnon-transitory instructions stored thereon/in that are executable by orused to program a server or other computing system (or collection ofsuch servers or computing systems) to perform some of the implementationof processes described herein. For example, computer program code 26 canimplement instructions for operating and configuring the system 16 tointercommunicate and to process web pages, applications and other dataand media content as described herein. In some implementations, thecomputer code 26 can be downloadable and stored on a hard disk, but theentire program code, or portions thereof, also can be stored in anyother volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known,such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storingprogram code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks,optical discs, digital versatile disks (DVD), compact disks (CD),microdrives, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards,nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other type ofcomputer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructions ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, for example, over the Internet, or from another server, as iswell known, or transmitted over any other existing network connection asis well known (for example, extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (for example, TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS,Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated thatcomputer code for the disclosed implementations can be realized in anyprogramming language that can be executed on a server or other computingsystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of example implementations of elements ofFIG. 1A and example interconnections between these elements according tosome implementations. That is, FIG. 1B also illustrates environment 10,but FIG. 1B, various elements of the system 16 and variousinterconnections between such elements are shown with more specificityaccording to some more specific implementations. Additionally, in FIG.1B, the user system 12 includes a processor system 12A, a memory system12B, an input system 12C, and an output system 12D. The processor system12A can include any suitable combination of one or more processors. Thememory system 12B can include any suitable combination of one or morememory devices. The input system 12C can include any suitablecombination of input devices, such as one or more touchscreeninterfaces, keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, orinterfaces to networks. The output system 12D can include any suitablecombination of output devices, such as one or more display devices,printers, or interfaces to networks.

In FIG. 1B, the network interface 20 is implemented as a set of HTTPapplication servers 1001-100N. Each application server 100, alsoreferred to herein as an “app server”, is configured to communicate withtenant database 22 and the tenant data 23 therein, as well as systemdatabase 24 and the system data 25 therein, to serve requests receivedfrom the user systems 12. The tenant data 23 can be divided intoindividual tenant storage spaces 40, which can be physically orlogically arranged or divided. Within each tenant storage space 40, userstorage 42 and application metadata 44 can similarly be allocated foreach user. For example, a copy of a user's most recently used (MRU)items can be stored to user storage 42. Similarly, a copy of MRU itemsfor an entire organization that is a tenant can be stored to tenantstorage space 40.

The process space 28 includes system process space 102, individualtenant process spaces 48 and a tenant management process space 46. Theapplication platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications. Such applications and others can be saved as metadata intotenant database 22 by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers asone or more tenant process spaces 48 managed by tenant managementprocess 46, for example. Invocations to such applications can be codedusing PL/SOQL 34, which provides a programming language style interfaceextension to API 32. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL languageimplementations is discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,730,478, titled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPEDAPPLICATIONS VIA A MULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by CraigWeissman, issued on Jun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety and for all purposes. Invocations to applications can bedetected by one or more system processes, which manage retrievingapplication metadata 44 for the subscriber making the invocation andexecuting the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.

The system 16 of FIG. 1B also includes a user interface (UI) 30 and anapplication programming interface (API) 32 to system 16 residentprocesses to users or developers at user systems 12. In some otherimplementations, the environment 10 may not have the same elements asthose listed above or may have other elements instead of, or in additionto, those listed above.

Each application server 100 can be communicably coupled with tenantdatabase 22 and system database 24, for example, having access to tenantdata 23 and system data 25, respectively, via a different networkconnection. For example, one application server 1001 can be coupled viathe network 14 (for example, the Internet), another application server100N-1 can be coupled via a direct network link, and another applicationserver 100N can be coupled by yet a different network connection.Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are examples oftypical protocols that can be used for communicating between applicationservers 100 and the system 16. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that other transport protocols can be used tooptimize the system 16 depending on the network interconnections used.

In some implementations, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant of the system 16. Because it can be desirable to be able to addand remove application servers 100 from the server pool at any time andfor various reasons, in some implementations there is no server affinityfor a user or organization to a specific application server 100. In somesuch implementations, an interface system implementing a load balancingfunction (for example, an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicablycoupled between the application servers 100 and the user systems 12 todistribute requests to the application servers 100. In oneimplementation, the load balancer uses a least-connections algorithm toroute user requests to the application servers 100. Other examples ofload balancing algorithms, such as round robin andobserved-response-time, also can be used. For example, in someinstances, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit threedifferent application servers 100, and three requests from differentusers could hit the same application server 100. In this manner, by wayof example, system 16 can be a multi-tenant system in which system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

In one example storage use case, one tenant can be a company thatemploys a sales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manageaspects of their sales. A user can maintain contact data, leads data,customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data,etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (for example,in tenant database 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, because allof the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report,transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a usersystem 12 having little more than network access, the user can managehis or her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different usersystems. For example, when a salesperson is visiting a customer and thecustomer has Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtaincritical updates regarding that customer while waiting for the customerto arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data can be stored separately from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data can beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by several users or all ofthe users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, there can besome data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated at thetenant level while other data structures can be managed at the userlevel. Because an MTS can support multiple tenants including possiblecompetitors, the MTS can have security protocols that keep data,applications, and application use separate. Also, because many tenantsmay opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system,redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that can beimplemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, the system 16 also can maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data caninclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In some implementations, the user systems 12 (which also can be clientsystems) communicate with the application servers 100 to request andupdate system-level and tenant-level data from the system 16. Suchrequests and updates can involve sending one or more queries to tenantdatabase 22 or system database 24. The system 16 (for example, anapplication server 100 in the system 16) can automatically generate oneor more SQL statements (for example, one or more SQL queries) designedto access the desired information. System database 24 can generate queryplans to access the requested data from the database. The term “queryplan” generally refers to one or more operations used to accessinformation in a database system.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined orcustomizable categories. A “table” is one representation of a dataobject, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description ofobjects and custom objects according to some implementations. It shouldbe understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeablyherein. Each table generally contains one or more data categorieslogically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each rowor element of a table can contain an instance of data for each categorydefined by the fields. For example, a CRM database can include a tablethat describes a customer with fields for basic contact information suchas name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table candescribe a purchase order, including fields for information such ascustomer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some MTS implementations,standard entity tables can be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities can include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. As used herein, the term “entity” alsomay be used interchangeably with “object” and “table.”

In some MTS implementations, tenants are allowed to create and storecustom objects, or may be allowed to customize standard entities orobjects, for example by creating custom fields for standard objects,including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In someimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

II. Extensible Moderation Framework

A moderation framework monitors content posted in a database network anduses a declarative configuration scheme to define moderation ruleswithout having to write new software. The moderation framework mayperform a variety of selectable actions when different types of usersand/or keywords are detected. For example, the moderation framework mayreplace or remove a word prior to posting the content in the databasenetwork. In another example, the moderation framework may tag thecontent for review prior to exposing it to non-moderators in thedatabase network, an action alternately referred to as premoderation.

A user interface operated by the moderation framework allows selectionof different user criteria and different content criteria for triggeringthe moderation rules. The user interface also provides selectableactions for the moderation rules to apply when the content matches theselected user and content criteria. The user interface also allowsselection of different entities for associating with differentmoderation rules, such as accounts, cases, opportunities, Chatter® feedposts, or custom objects defined by customers.

FIG. 2 shows one example moderation framework 110 that moderates contentposted in database networks 136. Database networks 136 may operatewithin database system 16 and may be associated with any community orconfigurable group of users. In one example, users affiliated withnetworks 136 may be associated with particular companies or particularorganizations within a company. Different types or groups of users maybe associated with a same network 136. For example, one of networks 136may include both internal users/employees of a company and externalusers/customers of the company.

Networks 136 are alternatively referred to as communities and may havecustomized skins, electronic page colors, page layouts, etc. Thecommunities also may wall off different content to different usergroups. For example, certain employees may not be able to view certaincontent posted by partners and certain customers may not be able to viewcertain content posted by employees.

One example partnership network community 136 may include a group ofcontractors that access cases. A community of customers may file thecases and the contactors in partnership community 136 may work on thecases. The partnership and customer communities may have a same sharedbase of data. However, the customers in the customer community may notbe able to view contractor conversations inside partnership community136.

Database system 16 may define community members with user profiles andpermission sets 130. Each user's profile 130 within database system 16provides different access privileges both for accessing particularnetworks 136 and for accessing different content and performingdifferent operations within networks 136. User profiles 130 also mayassociate users with different user categories or groups. For example,user profiles 130 may identify users as managers, engineers, salesman,customers, external users, new employees, for networks 136.

Users may use a communication platform 132, such as Chatter®, to postcontent in networks 136. Different users may view or post content viacommunication platform 132 based on associated user settings and/orpermissions in user profiles 130. For example, company employeesidentified by user profiles 130 may view internal posts from otheremployees and also view external posts from external customers. Externalcustomers identified by user profiles 130 might only view content postedby other customers or posted by employees specifically for externalcustomer viewing.

Some networks 136 may only be privately accessible by users associatedwith a particular organization. Other networks 136 may be publicallyaccessible social media networks, such as Facebook®, Twitter®,Instagram®, etc. User profiles 130, communication platform 132, andnetworks 136 are known to those skilled in the art and are therefore notdescribed in further detail.

Moderation framework 110 includes a moderation rule controller (rulecontroller) 134 that monitors content 142 posted by different users onnetworks 136. Moderation framework 110 also includes extensiblemoderation rules 124, user criteria 126, and content criteria 128 thatrule controller 134 uses for moderating content 142.

For example, a user operating user system 12A may be a member of network136A. The user may enter content 142A into a user interface 150 and thensend a request 140 to post content 142A in network 136A. Request 140 mayinclude a user identifier 144 identifying the user sending request 140and a network identifier 146 identifying which network 136A to postcontent 142A.

Content 142A may contain one or more word or phrases 154 that one ormore moderation rules 124 are configured to filter. For example, phrase154 may include profanity or any other type of inappropriate oroffensive language. In another example, phrase 154 may include spam thatone of moderation rules 124 are configured to block. In yet anotherexample, phrase 154 may include a name of a competitor that one ofmoderation rules 124 are configured to tag for analytic purposes.

Phrase 154 is alternatively referred to as a badword and may include anycombination of alpha-numeric characters, non-alpha numeric characters,and/or other delimiters. Content 142A may include text, links, files,private messages, records, objects, or any other data capable of beingsent to database system 16.

In response to receiving request 140, rule controller 134 may loadmoderation rules 124 associated with network 136A. For example, rulecontroller 134 may load moderation rules 124 from database 22 intoremote cache 120. Remote cache 120 is an intermediate, distributed cachelayer that lives on servers between the a main server and database 22.Rule controller 134 also may load user criteria 126 and content criteria128 associated with the moderation rules 124.

Rule controller 134 applies moderation rules 124 to content 142A basedon the user criteria 126 and content criteria 128. User criteria 126 mayspecify particular types of users for applying moderation rules 124. Forexample, user criteria 126 may identify external users that are notemployees of the company affiliated with network 136A. User criteria 126may also identify internal users who have recently joined the company.

Rule controller 134 may determine the types of users sending content142A based on user id 144. For example, controller 134 may identify oneof user profiles 130 associated with user id 144. The identified userprofile 130 may identify the user as an external user.

Rule controller 134 may check content criteria 128 when the user sendingcontent 142A satisfies user criteria 126. Otherwise, controller 134 maydisregard that particular moderation rule 124. Content criteria 128 mayinclude one or more lists of keywords for comparing with content 142A.For example, content criteria 128 may include a list of derogatory,offensive, or profane words.

Rule controller 128 determines if content 142A includes any of thekeywords in content criteria 128. If so, rule controller 134 performs anassociated action identified in moderation rule 124. For example, theaction may direct rule controller 134 to replace the matching phrase incontent 142A with asterisks. Controller 134 replaces the phrase incontent 142A and then posts the moderated content 142B in network 136A.

Moderation framework 110 may moderate content 142 posted on selectablenetworks 136 based on selectable moderation rules 124, selectable usercriteria 126, and/or selectable content criteria 128. The extensible andselectable moderation rules 124 and rule criteria 126 and 128 simplifythe creation and management of content moderation for database networks136.

FIG. 3 shows one example moderation framework process. Referring toFIGS. 2 and 3, operation 200A detects a user trying to post content 142Aand operation 200B identifies the network 136 associated with content142A. For example, user request 140 may include a network identifier 146for network 136A.

Operation 200C may load the rules and rule criteria for the identifiednetwork. For example, rule controller 134 may load rules 124 and rulecriteria 126 and 128 associated with network identifier 146.

Operation 200D determines if the user posting content 142A satisfies anyof the loaded user criteria 126. For example, rule controller 134 maydetermine if any profiles 130 or permissions associated with user id 144indicate the user belongs to any of the user categories identified inuser criteria 126. Rule controller 134 may post content 142A to network136A without any further moderation when the user does not satisfy anyof the user criteria 126.

When user criteria 126 does apply, operation 200E may check contentcriteria 128. For example, rule controller 134 may determine if anykeywords in content criteria 128 match any phrases in content 142A. Ifnot, the moderation rule 124 does not apply and rule controller 134posts content 142A to network 136A with no moderation.

If there are keyword matches, operation 200F applies the action for theassociated rule 124 to content 142A. For example, rule 124 may include apre-moderation action that sends content 142A to a designated networkmoderator. The network moderator may review and/or edit content 142Aprior to posting in network 136A.

FIG. 4 shows an example rule template operated by the moderationframework for creating or editing moderation rules. Rule template 210may include a name field 210A and a description field 210B for assigninga name and description, respectively, to moderation rule 124.

For example, the network administrator may enter the name externalcustomer moderation to identify a moderation rule 124 that moderatescontent posted by external users. As mentioned above, an external usermay have some access to a network/community but may not be directlyaffiliated or employed by the organization that operates thenetwork/community. For example, external users may be customers of thebusiness that operates the network.

The network administrator may select between different user criterialists 126 that identify different users or user categories. The networkadministrator may use different arrow icons 210E to scroll and selectdifferent user criteria lists 126 displayed in field 210E forassociating with moderation rule 124. Selected user criteria list 126Ais displayed in field 210C.

User criteria lists 126 may include user identifiers (user ids) forspecific users or may include profile identifiers for different usergroups, user categories, or user permission levels. A first externaluser criteria list 126A may include profile identifiers for externalcustomers, a second new users criteria list 126B may include profileidentifiers for users that have only been members of the network forsome limited period of time. A managers criteria list 126C may includeprofile identifiers associated with network managers. Again, the rulecontroller may identify external customers, new users, managers, etc. byusing user id 144 in FIG. 2 to identify the different user categories orpermission levels in associated user profiles 130.

Another type of user criteria list 126 may identify users that have notposted content for some designated period of time. For example, tomoderate surprise content attacks, a system administrator may create arule 124 that provides more cautious moderation of content from usersthat have not posted content for some relatively long period of time.

The system administrator may select a user criteria list 210 for userswho infrequently post content. Based on the selected user criteria list,the rule controller may check user profiles 130 in FIG. 2 and identifythe last time the user posted content in the database system. If theuser has not posted content for a specified period of time, the rulecontroller may trigger moderation rule 124.

The network administrator also may select one or more content criterialists 128 displayed in field 210G to associate with moderation rule 124.The network administrator may create different content criteria lists128 that contain different keywords. For example, a first one of contentcriteria lists 128A may include keywords designated as inappropriateunder the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPPA). Asecond one of content criteria lists 128B may include bad or offensiveEnglish words. A third one of content criteria lists 128C may includebad or offensive French words.

Content criteria lists 128 may include any combination of keywords fortriggering moderation rule 124. For example, one of content criterialists 128 may include competitor names. The associated moderation rule124 may flag any content that includes any of the competitor names forreview by a particular group of users, moderators, managers, and/ormarketers that monitor competitor related content.

The system administrator may select different actions 212 thatmoderation rule 124 takes in response to detecting selected usercriteria 126A and selected content criteria 128B. Example actions 212may include, but are not limited to, block, replace, flag,premoderation, and freeze & notify.

Block action 212A may prevent any content that includes one of thekeywords in content criteria 128B from posting on the network. Replaceaction 212B may let the content post but replace the matching phrases inthe content with other words or characters, such as asterisks.

Flag action 212C may flag the content that includes matching phrases.Moderation rules 124 may use different flags for different types ofcontent, such different flags identifying spam, inappropriate words, andcompetitor names.

Premoderation action 212D may send the content to a systemadministrator/moderator for review prior to exposing it tonon-moderators in the network. After moderator approval, other users inthe community may view the content. Freeze & notify action 212E may lockthe user out of the network and notify the moderator.

Different moderation rules 124 may be created for different actions 212.For example, a first moderation rule 124 may replace content and asecond moderation rule 124 may flag the content to notify the networkmoderator. The rules may use the same or different combinations of usercriteria 126 and content criteria 128. Reusing different combinations ofuser criteria 126 and content criteria 128 for different moderationrules 124 increases extensibility by not having to define new criteriafor each rule.

As mentioned above, moderation rules 124 are typically triggered off acombination of selected user criteria 126A and selected content criteria128B. When no user criteria 126 is selected, moderation rule 124 maytrigger based only on selected content criteria 128B. Similarly, if nocontent criteria 128 is selected, moderation rule 124 may trigger basedonly off of selected user criteria 126A. The rule controller may apply aselected action 212 to all network content when moderation rule 124includes no selected user criteria 126 and no selected content criteria128.

As explained in more detail below, rule template 210 may include anentity field for selecting different entity criteria for triggeringmoderation rule 124. The entity field may allow the system administratorto select a category or type of content, such as a post, comment, file,private message, custom object, etc. Similar to user criteria 126 andcontent criteria 128, moderation rule 124 may not trigger unless thecontent includes the selected entity criteria.

FIG. 5 shows example user criteria and content criteria templates. Themoderation framework may display a user criteria template 230 forcreating or editing user criteria lists 126 shown above in FIG. 4. Thesystem administrator may enter a name for user criteria list 126 intofield 230A and enter a description for user criteria list 126 into field230B.

The system administrator may enter or select profile identifiers 230D,permissions, user identifiers, etc. displayed in field 230C for addingto user criteria list 126. As mentioned above, the database system mayinclude different user and group profile identifiers 232 that identifytypes of users, user groups, or user categories. User criteria template230 may automatically search and display different profile identifiers232 stored in the database system associated with a particular databasenetwork. The system administrator may select any of the profileidentifiers 232 in field 230C or may manually enter profile identifiers232 into field 230C. The network administrator then saves the selectedprofiles identifiers 232 as part of user criteria list 126.

The moderation framework may display a content criteria template 240 forcreating or editing content criteria lists 128 as shown above in FIG. 4.For example, the system administrator may enter a name into field 240Aand enter a description into field 240B for content criteria list 128.The system administrator may enter keywords 242 into field 240C foradding to content criteria list 128. Keywords 242 may include any word,phrase, term, character, etc. The created and/or edited user criterialist 126 and content criteria list 128 are then displayed by moderationrule template 210 described above in FIG. 5.

The extensible moderation framework creates or edits moderation rules124 simply by selecting user criteria lists 126, content criteria lists128, and actions 212 displayed in moderation rule template 210.Selectable intuitive user interface 210 can add, change, and/or managemoderation rules 124 without writing new software code.

FIG. 6 shows an example data structure for the moderation framework.Moderation rule 124 may include a name, and description as describedabove and include at least one action, such as a block, replace, or flagoperation. A network identifier may associate moderation rule 124 withone or more networks 136, communities, groups, etc.

Content criteria lists 128 may include a network identifier, name anddescription, and a list of keywords. The network identifier may linkcontent criteria list 128 to a specific network 136. User criteria lists126 may include a network identifier, name, and description. Usercriteria lists 126 also may include profile identifiers, creation ageidentifiers, and last activity identifiers.

As described above, the profile identifiers may identify different typesof users that may trigger moderation rule 124. The creation ageidentifier may trigger moderation rule 124 based on how long the userhas been a member of a network 136. For example, new users recently beenadded to network 136 may trigger certain moderation rules 124 that moreclosely regulate posted content.

The last activity identifier may trigger moderation rules 124 based onthe last time the user accessed or posted content on network 136. Themoderation platform may identify the creation age and last activity forthe user from the user profiles maintained by database system 16.

Different mappings 250 link content criteria 126 and user criteria 128to different moderation rules 124. For example, content criteria mapping250A may include a rule identifier, entity type, and a content criteriaidentifier. The rule identifier in content criteria mapping 250A maylink to one or more of moderation rules 124 and content criteriaidentifier in content criteria mapping 250A may link to one or morecontent criteria lists 128. The entity type in mapping 250A may identifya type of field or object for triggering the linked moderation rule 124.User criteria mapping 250B includes a rule identifier linking to one ormore of moderation rules 124 and includes a user criteria identifiermapping to one or more user criteria lists 126.

Entity criteria mappings 250C may include rule identifiers linking tomoderation rules 124 and include different entity types. As describedabove, the entity types may identify types of data or fields fortriggering linked moderation rules 124. For example, entity types mayidentify a post, comment, file, private message, or any other type ofselectable content or object entered into any selectable field, record,or any other data element.

FIG. 7 shows an example moderation framework for triggering and loadingmoderation rules 124. A database save framework 260 may generatetriggers 262 when a user saves or inserts data in database system 16.For example, the save framework 260 may generate triggers 262 to invokeactions during the validation, presave, save, post save, workflow andcommit phases of a save transaction in the database system 16. Saveframework 260 is known to those skilled in the art and is not describedin further detail.

Moderation rules 124 may trigger at different times. For example,validation operations in framework 260 validate the data values enteredby users. Validation trigger 262A may trigger a block moderation rule124A before database system 16 saves the content. A presave trigger 262Bmay trigger a replace or premoderation rule 124B before the contententers database system 16 for processing. A post save trigger 262C maytrigger a flag moderation rule 124C since the content should be savedprior to flagging it in the database.

FIG. 8 shows an example process for optimizing moderation ruleexecution. Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, remote cache 120 and internalmemory cache 122 may be any type of memory with relatively fast readand/or write speeds compared with database 22, such as random accessmemory (RAM) or Flash memory.

Operation 300A may detect a trigger 262 from save framework 260. Forexample, a user may send a request to the database system to postcontent in a particular network. Operation 300B identifies the networkassociated with the content based on the network identifier includedwith the user request.

Operation 300C may determine if moderation rules 124 for the identifiednetwork and content matches are memoized in local cache memory 122. Ifso, operation 300I may apply the matching network rule actions to thecontent in operation 300I. For example, rule controller 134 may performa block, replace, pre-moderate, flag, or freeze & notify operation onthe content associated with the matching rule.

Otherwise, operation 300D may determine if moderation rules 124 for theidentified network are located in local cache memory 122. If so,operation 300H may evaluate the rule criteria for the content to findand memorize rule-content matches in the rules to run list 270 in localcache 122. Operation 300I then applies the matching network rule actionsto the content. Rules with no matching content may be discarded.

Operation 300E may determine if network moderation rules 124 are locatedin remote cache 120. If so, operation 300G loads the network rules fromremote cache 120 into local cache 122 before performing operations 300Hand 300I. If not, operation 300F may load the network rules fromdatabase 22 into remote cache 120 before performing operations 300G,300H, and 300I.

The rule controller may load all moderation rules 124, rule information280, user criteria lists 126, and content criteria lists 128 associatedwith the identified network. Moderation rules, 124, user criteria lists126, and content criteria lists 128 can be separately loaded into bothremote cache 120 and local memory 122 and are relatively static.Therefore, rule controller 134 may keep previously applied moderationrules 124, associated user criteria lists 126, and associated contentcriteria lists 128 in local memory 122 for subsequent contentmoderation.

The specific details of the specific aspects of implementationsdisclosed herein may be combined in any suitable manner withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.However, other implementations may be directed to specificimplementations relating to each individual aspect, or specificcombinations of these individual aspects. Additionally, while thedisclosed examples are often described herein with reference to animplementation in which an on-demand database service environment isimplemented in a system having an application server providing a frontend for an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the present implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases or deployment on application servers. Implementations may bepracticed using other database architectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBMand the like without departing from the scope of the implementationsclaimed.

It should also be understood that some of the disclosed implementationscan be embodied in the form of various types of hardware, software,firmware, or combinations thereof, including in the form of controllogic, and using such hardware or software in a modular or integratedmanner. Other ways or methods are possible using hardware and acombination of hardware and software. Additionally, any of the softwarecomponents or functions described in this application can be implementedas software code to be executed by one or more processors using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, existing or object-oriented techniques. The softwarecode can be stored as a computer- or processor-executable instructionsor commands on a physical non-transitory computer-readable medium.Examples of suitable media include random access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), magnetic media such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, oran optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digital versatiledisk), flash memory, and the like, or any combination of such storage ortransmission devices. Computer-readable media encoded with thesoftware/program code may be packaged with a compatible device orprovided separately from other devices (for example, via Internetdownload). Any such computer-readable medium may reside on or within asingle computing device or an entire computer system, and may be amongother computer-readable media within a system or network. A computersystem, or other computing device, may include a monitor, printer, orother suitable display for providing any of the results mentioned hereinto a user.

While some implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A database system comprising: a processor; andmemory coupled to the processor and storing: a user criteria listidentifying one or more categories of users of a database community; acontent criteria list including keywords to compare with content to beposted to the database community; a rule template to create or editmoderation rules, the rule template including a user criteria field todisplay the user criteria list and receive a selection of the displayeduser criteria list to link to the moderation rules, a content criteriafield to display the content criteria list and receive a selection ofthe displayed content criteria list to link to the moderation rules, andan action field to display an action to apply to the content to beposted to the database community and receive a selection of the actionto associate with the moderation rules; and instructions that, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the database system to performoperations comprising: receiving, from a user system via a networkcoupled to the database system, the content to be posted to the databasecommunity; determining that the content to be posted satisfies one ormore criteria from the user criteria list or the content criteria list;and applying the selected action to the content based on the contentsatisfying the one or more criteria.
 22. The database system of claim21, wherein the database community is privately accessible by usersassociated with a particular organization, or the database community isa publically accessible online social media network.
 23. The databasesystem of claim 21, wherein the content to be posted includes: text, alink, a file, a message, a record, or an object.
 24. The database systemof claim 21, wherein the user criteria list identifies types of users towhich to apply the moderation rules.
 25. The database system of claim24, wherein the types of users include users internal to anorganization, users external to an organization, or users who havejoined an organization within a predetermined time period.
 26. Thedatabase system of claim 21, wherein receiving the selection of thedisplayed user criteria list to link to the moderation rules includesreceiving an identifier of a moderation rule to apply to a particularuser.
 27. The database system of claim 21, wherein the rule templatedisplays a selection of different user criteria lists that identifydifferent users or user categories.
 28. The database system of claim 21,wherein the user criteria list includes a respective user identifier foreach respective user in the user criteria list, or a profile identifierassociated with a plurality of users.
 29. The database system of claim21, wherein the user criteria list identifies a user that has not postedcontent to the database community within a predetermined period of time.30. The database system of claim 21, wherein the user criteria listidentifies a user having a posting frequency below a predeterminedthreshold.
 31. The database system of claim 21, wherein the actionassociated with the moderation rules includes a block action that blocksthe content from being posted to the database community.
 32. Thedatabase system of claim 21, wherein the action associated with themoderation rules includes a replace action that replaces portions of thecontent matching any of the keywords in the linked content criterialist.
 33. The database system of claim 21, wherein the action associatedwith the moderation rules includes a flag action that flags the contentincluding any of the keywords in the linked content criteria list. 34.The database system of claim 21, wherein the action associated with themoderation rules includes a premoderation action that redirects thecontent to a moderator for review.
 35. The database system of claim 21,wherein the action associated with the moderation rules includes afreeze and notify action to lock the user out of the network and notifya moderator.
 36. The database system of claim 21, wherein the memoryfurther stores an entity criteria list stored to identify datacategories for the content, and wherein the moderation rules apply theselected action to the content based on the content having theidentified data categories in the entity criteria list.
 37. The databasesystem of claim 36, wherein the memory further stores a respective userprofile for each respective user of the database community, wherein eachuser profile includes a profile identifier associated with a usercategory or a permission indicator associated with a user category. 38.The database system of claim 21, wherein the moderation rules includenetwork identifiers associating the moderation rules with a plurality ofdifferent database communities operated within the database system. 39.A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that,when executed by a processor, cause a database system to: receive, froma user system via a network coupled to the database system, content tobe posted to a database community; determine that the content to beposted satisfies one or more criteria from a user criteria listidentifying one or more categories of users of a database community, ora content criteria list that includes keywords to compare with thecontent to be posted to the database community; display, via a userinterface coupled to the database system, a rule template to create oredit moderation rules, the rule template including a user criteria fieldto display the user criteria list and receive a selection of thedisplayed user criteria list to link to the moderation rules, a contentcriteria field to display the content criteria list and receive aselection of the displayed content criteria list to link to themoderation rules, and an action field to display an action to apply tothe content to be posted and receive a selection of the action toassociate with the moderation rules; and apply the selected action tothe content based on the content satisfying the one or more criteria.40. A method comprising: receiving by a database system, from a usersystem via a network coupled to the database system, content to beposted to a database community; determining, by the database system,that the content to be posted satisfies one or more criteria from a usercriteria list identifying one or more categories of users of a databasecommunity, or a content criteria list that includes keywords to comparewith the content to be posted to the database community; displaying, viaa user interface coupled to the database system, a rule template tocreate or edit moderation rules, the rule template including a usercriteria field to display the user criteria list and receive a selectionof the displayed user criteria list to link to the moderation rules, acontent criteria field to display the content criteria list and receivea selection of the displayed content criteria list to link to themoderation rules, and an action field to display an action to apply tothe content to be posted and receive a selection of the action toassociate with the moderation rules; and applying, by the databasesystem, the selected action to the content based on the contentsatisfying the one or more criteria.